December Already!

I've been incredibly lax recently with my blog and thought I'd get a post in quickly before it's the end of another year!  I last wrote that it was Autumn already....and here we are, it's winter!  Thankfully though, the winters here in southern Spain are short and mild, we've had some rain, which we really, really needed, but apart from that it's been sunshine during the day, temperatures of around 19C - 21C, and cooler nights.  Perfect winter weather for me!

So what's been happening in my world since I last posted on here?  Well my husband Brian was really sick about 5 weeks ago and I was extremely worried as he's rarely unwell, but he was bad, really bad, collapsing a couple of times, which was very scary and this was just before he was due to go to the UK to visit with his family.  He wanted to leave going to the doctor until he returned from his trip but I was concerned that he was sicker than he was letting on...so I made an appointment and it turns out I was right, the doctor took his blood and his sugar levels were sky high....he was immediately diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and she injected him with insulin straight away in the surgery.  Now, 5 weeks later he's doing so much better.  Obviously he had to cancel his trip, which was a shame for him but at least if he's going to be sick then he is close to home.  But thank goodness he's doing well, he's testing his blood and injecting himself every day and although his legs aren't great, they're at least working to hold him upright!!!

Brian also bought himself a mobility scooter which he's enjoying!! He tells me he's named it Thunderbolt 2!!!  It means that we can get out together, he can ride his scooter and I can walk along next to him with Lucy, our Miniature Pinscher, which is great!

On the dolly front, I have been enjoying my new Dandelion by Bimong and also I recently received my Xiao Yu head from Black Cherry dolls, a Russian artist.  The head sculpt is beautiful and has a gorgeous faceup by Blisslacosta, who is also Russian.  Four months ago I ordered her an Elf body from Dollstown and hopefully that will arrive soon.  In the meantime she is using my Volks SDMidi body, the colour match is really good (the head is Oriental Copper and the body is called Sunlight).  But my Volks girl is looking forward to getting her body back I'm sure!!

I love the way this faceup artist paints the lower eyelashes on dolls, they looks so incredibly realistic.

I have also received some gorgeous gifts from two of my lovely dolly friends.  One of my friends in the US said that she wanted to send me a gift as she enjoyed reading my blog.  I don't like the idea that people think I 'deserve' anything for the fact that they enjoy my photos, I just am happy that people do enjoy them....but this lovely lady asked me what I would like.  I finally suggested that maybe she would like to send me a fat quarter of fabric which I would use to make an outfit for one of my girls and would think of her when I looked at the dress.....and then lo and behold not one fat quarter but THREE fat halves (I think that's what they're called) arrived from her, such pretty fabrics, thank you so much my dear....you know who you are!!!

Using two of the fabrics, I made this dress for my Dandelion, I hope you like it D, and that you think I'm making good use of your very pretty gifts!

Another present I received was a complete surprise from my friend J who also lives in the US.  She sent me a box and inside were two BJDs (ball jointed dolls), both BIDs (Yosd size) from Iplehouse, an extra BID head, another manikin doll (you'll remember seeing two others that she sent me earlier in the year), some outfits, a wig and a pattern!  

Here is one of the new Iplehouse dolls, she is a Elin and I enhanced her face a bit as she was a little pale, I gave her some new eyelashes, new eyes and new wig.  She then went through the dolls clothes box and found herself something to wear!

I haven't taken photos of the other doll and the spare head, but will get to that soon.  

Thank you both, D and J, for my lovely gifts, I'm just so incredibly lucky to have the dolly friends that I have. 

I'm off to the UK on Saturday for nine hours....yes you read that right, just nine hours!! I'm going over to meet my mum and brother and bring them back to Spain with me on Sunday morning and they are spending Christmas and New Year with us.  I will then go back with them to the UK on the 3rd January and spend a few days there meeting up (hopefully) with my friend Sue and my son :)  

Well hopefully I will get to post maybe one more time before Christmas.  Thank you so much in advance for visiting and have a great week ahead!!

Big hugs Sharon xxx

 
                          

Preparing for spring...

On Monday we went to Sevilla and ordered the wood to build our new pergola which will go over the jacuzzi/hot tub in our garden.  Some of you might remember that back on the 28th February 2013, which is a holiday here as it is el Dia de Andalucia, we had a heavy snow fall which brought down our existing pergola.  I say 'brought down', but the 'unusual for here' weight of the snow on top, actually broke it completely in half!!  We weren't here at the time as Brian and I had gone to the coast for a couple of weeks, but Brendan awoke to see the damage and sent us these photos...

You can see below that the metal cross beam at the far end is completely broken in the middle, and the one this end is just being supported by an 'acro' that Brendan put in place temporarily!! 

This was one of the 'upright' corner posts, which as well as being bolted into the ground, was also attached to the wall of the house with metal brackets!!!  

So for two years we've been looking for 'just the right' pergola to replace it, as without shade we can only use the jacuzzi at night when the sun can't shine on it and damage the fibreglass.  Because wood isn't used so much here, we've been quoted some very high prices for a simple wooden structure so we finally decided to order the wood and make our own.  It will be a standard pergola with 6 crossbeams.   The wood was delivered on Thursday, our hallway has been piled up with wood like an adventure playground for the last few days!!  The bag contains all the metal fittings!

And we decided to make a start on it today.  Brian has drawn up all the plans, he can't do the lifting but is the 'brains' behind the building, Brendan and I are the 'brawn' apparently!!!!  Not so sure, having lost more than 50 pounds in weight in the last year, that I really want to be known as the 'brawn' but it could be worse I guess :)

Brendan's face below, shows how not 'overly impressed' he was when I said that I wanted the corner posts shortened by approx half a metre....

Brian directs the procedings!!! Note those horrible matching woolly hats!

As the morning warmed up, Brendan starts to shed the layers!!

The metal 'shoes' go onto the corner posts...this is Brian's 'work room' with the open door...

Ah, here comes the Building Inspector....or Yoda as she's otherwise known :) ...

It's not often you see Brendan without his woolly hat in winter, but it was turning into a nice warm morning...

Drilling through the tiles into the ground...

In the meantime I got bored standing around waiting for my 'services' to be needed so I decided to do a bit of weeding and tidying up of the garden.  I filled three large sacks of weeds and leaves....just shows you how 'needed' I was!!!

I thought I'd share some photos I took of the plants.  Most have done well over the winter, some have done VERY well!!

The rockery plants are doing very nicely indeed, lovely and green.  Once I'd removed a lot of the weeds, you could see them properly!!  The yucca in the pot in front is usually standing behind the jacuzzi but we had to move it out of the way for the 'workers'.....we've had this some years now and got it as a tiny little 'stump' thingy!!!! It has sooo much new growth down at the bottom, but it does need repotting as it's got very top heavy and easily falls over.

Loads of lemons on the tree, even though I use at least one a day, thankfully they don't diminish very quickly!  They really are probably the nicest lemons I've ever tasted....and definitely the freshest! ;)  Am I prejudiced?  Maybe!!

This plant has done incredibly well during the winter, we bought it last spring and it's grown nicely in the pot...

This is our Hibiscus, again bought last year.  They can be very temperamental, but this one has done well in the cold as it's protected in this corner...

These two troughs of cactii and succulents are spreading nicely and filling in the spaces...

I don't know what this plant is called but it looks lovely in this old pot...the bottom of the pot is planted in the soil and has been since before we moved in back in April 2004, there is another photo of it further down...

The mandarin looks good and healthy now that we've taken it from it's pot and planted it in the soil...the stones around the base are to prevent the dogs from digging, which they like to do!

Another 'oldie', our cheese plant, normally a 'houseplant' in the UK, has been outside since we received it as a gift in 2006!

This palm will take over the garden if we let it, it was thoroughly cut back last year and needs to be done again very soon...

The mystery orange/lemon tree is producing lots of lovely fruit again.....even after almost 11 years living here, it's still such a novelty for me to have citrus fruit growing in our own garden!

Here you can see both the oranges and the lemons growing side by side in the same tree...

I love this succulent in it's pot on top of our garden 'plinthe', it always looks so pretty and healthy with it's green with red tipped leaves...

Here's the old plant pot buried in the ground that I mentioned earlier....we daren't try moving it as we're sure it'd just fall apart!! 

Some members of the family got very 'exhausted' watching the rest of us work!!!!  Suki, enjoying a bit of a sunbathe in her 'mummy made' furry coat!!!

 Whilst Chocco investigates (and eats) anything he can find!

 Yoda just looks at the 'whipper snappers' with contempt!

 
The other Yucca, also needing repotting...it has grown enormously!!

A few years back this large bowl was planted up with some small cactii.....now you can't see hardly an inch between them!

There's that old yucca again....oh and my lovely Lucy!

I got very excited when, having removed the weeds surrounding it, I found this plant in flower.....I thought my 'money tree' had begun to flower ;) only to realise that no, the money tree is next to it and as yet, no flowers!!  

This spiky cousin of the Aloe Vera has several flower stalks waiting to come up....won't be long now!

Why is it that grasses and weeds choose the sharpest plants to grow around....this spiky cactus is surrounded by 'stuff' that needs pulling up...

And finally a few photos of the doggies......Yoda

Choco in his usual 'upside down' pose!!!

And especially for Auntie Ronny, here is Kara, our tiniest little Chihuahua...

As for progress on the pergola, well the four corner posts are up and bolted to the ground, and two of the 6 rafters (one each end) are screwed in place....and this afternoon we had hailstones....so as the saying goes, tomorrow is another day!

I hope you've enjoyed sharing my Sunday and wish you all a lovely week ahead. :)